Shadows
by Dragons15
Summary: What if Jaden's first Shadow Duel, the one he never realized was a Shadow Duel, had a far greater effect than all but a handful of people could have realized.


**Has anyone else ever noticed that as the later Yu-gi-oh series went on their plotlines carried them farther and farther away from the shadow duels and history of duel monsters set up in the original series? I mean the game still ends up being powerful and dangerous, just not in the same way. To the best of my knowledge the last time a "true" shadow duel showed up in the series was in GX after Jaden called out the supposed shadow duelist on his illusion and then the real shadows came out. Even then, he never recognized it as a true shadow duel. Just though it might be interesting to play around with it.**

 **I do not own Yu-gi-oh or Yu-gi-oh GX.**

Something was different. Not in the way it had been when the Millennium Items had disappeared, no this was not the same, but still different. There was… screaming, that in itself was nothing new. Yet, this had an unusual quality to it, one of fear and… life. Then an inaudible murmur of words, and shouts… a… duel. Yes that was it! How long had it been since such a sound had been heard in this place by human ears, by _his_ ears. He could not see, but, bound and trapped as he was he was still one of their masters, and so he could feel-the shadows were angry. The duelists, they were furious at them, whichever lost the shadows would be pleased. One had made a mockery of them, and the Millennium Puzzle which had housed their Pharaoh. The other openly mocked them, and the items of their masters. Thus in a way he mocked their masters as well, seeing as two of them had been sealed inside the Millennium Items. It seemed only as instant and the duel was over, the shadows, though, were loath to let either participant go. Neither were their masters and no rules had been set within their domain. They reached, they stretched, they took one, they seethed in outrage as the other slipped from their grasp, they tried in vain to take another as the worlds were separated once again. A new wave of loathing swept through them as the survivor still mocked them and their power. Railing futilely against the barrier to the world that they had been separated from, hours past, slowly ever so slowly in their anger they grew careless. The bonds loosened an immeasurable fraction, but it would be enough. In this place of silence and darkness and screams, something terribly out of place drowned everything out. A cold maniacal laugh echoed and reverberated around the void, because he knew, no matter how long it took, he would one day be free, and then with none left alive to oppose him, the shadows would be his alone to wield.

In Domino city, Yugi, the King of Games himself, faltered mid-sentence, mid-duel, as he felt an inexplicable shiver travel along his spine. Even though he no longer had the Millennium puzzle he knew it, inexplicably, had something to do with the Shadow Realm. Without it though, without the Pharaoh, there was nothing he could do.

Ryou stumbled and shivered, barely repressing a frightened yelp as his gaze whipped through the throng of people on the sidewalk in a panicked frenzy. Clutching the grocery bags he had been carrying in a loose grasp so hard his knuckles turned white as his hair; he hurried home all the faster, all the while _He's gone, He's gone, He's gone_ , rang as hollow mantra, rattling haplessly through his mind. Unable to drown out the single, simple thought that hovered unwanted in the back of his mind, _When has that ever stopped Him before?_

Seto Kaiba felt it too, a baseless sense of wrongness. It had abruptly jerked him from the company business he had been utterly engrossed in. _Shadows…_ the thought was crushed in an instant, yet he still could not shake the feeling that something… He refused to let his mind wander for any longer, turning his attention back to the computer he attempted to drown out the fading feeling by concentrating solely on his work.

Elsewhere, the glass slipped from the hand of Maximillian Pegasus, and shattered on the floor as he doubled over and clutched his head, a sudden, sharp spike of pain stabbing into it. The laughter rang through his head, and his eye flew open; all around, all he could see were shadows. Then his gaze settled on the face, gaunt features split by a too wide grin. Eyes met eye- Pegasus found himself staring at the scattered remains of a broken glass, the liquid it had once contained in an ever widening puddle on the floor. Footsteps were fast approaching, an exclamation, "Sir, are you alright?" seemed to echo from far away. He could not find words to answer with.

In Egypt Ishizu Ishtar's face twisted into a frown as she tossed and turned uncomfortably in her sleep, and Marik Ishtar- he screamed, roused from something like a half-formed and half-remembered nightmare. Only it was no nightmare, he, and he alone knew what had truly transpired. He had felt the power ripple through the shadows as his evil self began to free himself from their bonds. With the Millennium Items gone though, there was nothing he or anyone else could do, not when a master of the Shadows was already within them.

 **What do you think? Constructive criticism is greatly appreciated, but please do not be outright rude. If you don't like it you don't have to read it.**


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